HISTORY OF LIVER. 5 



A.D. 200, as the focus of animal heat, and as the organ 

 intended for the formation of blood, and for the origin 

 of the veins. These views of the great Eoman physician 

 underwent scarcely any modification by his able 

 followers the Arabian physicians, and remained as such 

 until the middle of the seventeenth century. In the 

 pathology of the ancients, particularly of Galen, the 

 liver and the portal system served as the starting-point 

 of manifold disturbances. There were described, not 

 only a host of anatomical and functional lesions of the 

 organ itself; such as inflammation, abscess, obstruction 

 of the ducts, and the different conditions resulting from 

 intemperance ; but a large proportion of constitutional 

 diseases were at the same time referred to the same source. 



A further cause of general diseases was found in the 

 products of the secretion of that organ the yellow, and 

 the black bile which, under a humoral pathology, had 

 a mighty importance as elementary constituents of the 

 organ: 



The yellow bile, for instance, was thought would induce 



acute diseases, running a rapid course and accompanied 



by a high degree of temperature, such as erysipelas, &c.; 



while the black bile was believed to give rise to chronic 



diseases, such as mental disorders, apoplexy, and con- 



'>ns. Throughout the pathological works which 



ired from the time of (lalen down to the middle of 



seventeenth century, this organ was looked upon 



as the seat of the soul itself. 



The discovery of the lacteal vessels by Aselli, in 



1622; the thoracic duct by Prequet, in 1G47; and the 



.latiun of the blood by our own Harvey, in 1628, 



gave a severe shock to the views of Galen and his 



